Order of Taraka

"They are masters of deceit. Vampires are bound by the night, but these predators can be anywhere, anytime. They can appear as normal as the next person. Just another face in the crowd. You might not ever know when one of them is near - not until the moment of your death."

Contents

History

"They have no earthly desire except to collect their bounty. To find their target and eliminate it -. You can kill as many of them as you like. It won't make any difference - because where there is one, there will be another. And another. They won't stop coming until the job is done."

Background

The records on the Order of Taraka indicated that they existed at least since the times of King Solomon (970 B.C.). Throughout the centuries, they became widely feared and respected. They could be identified by a ring worn by each member of the Order, which bore the society's symbol.

According to Rupert Giles, the credo of the Order was to sow discord and kill the unwary. Its members had no earthly desires but to collect their bounties. Each of them worked alone and with their own methods, though most of them preferred to assume a disguise to observe and stalk their victims until it was time to strike. If one assassin was killed, another would take his place until the target had been eliminated.

The contract on Buffy Summers

The assassins in Drusilla's cards

Dalton: "The Order of Taraka. I mean, don't you think that's overkill?"

In late 1997, the vampireSpike summoned the Order of Taraka to hunt down Buffy Summers, the Slayer, so she would not interfere in his attempt to restore the health of his lover Drusilla. Dru's tarot cards predicted the coming of three assassins, represented by cards depicting a cyclops, an insect and a jaguar.

Following the deaths of the three assassins and the defeat of Spike and Drusilla, the contract on Buffy was cancelled, thus the Order didn't send anymore Tarakans after her.